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Espada Aqueduct and Dam

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c. 1745. 9044 Espada Rd.
  • (The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
  • (The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Located to the north of Mission Espada are the remnants of what was once a much more extensive system of water control and irrigation planned and constructed by the monks who manned the missions along the banks of the San Antonio River. The Espada Dam enabled the missions to collect water from the river and divert it via a limestone aquaduct over the Piedras Creek into the acequias, or irrigation ditches, of the fields nearby. While the main current of the river has been diverted to protect the system, it still carries water into the fields as it did in the eighteenth century.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Espada Aqueduct and Dam", [San Antonio, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-SA88.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 172-172.

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